


Final Answer

by Goldberry



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, F/M, Implied/Referenced Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 19:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1440856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldberry/pseuds/Goldberry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye is undergoing testing but it's Ward who doesn't know the answer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Final Answer

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for 1.17. Just a scene I couldn't get out of my head. I'm of the opinion that Ward is NOT brainwashed so that is reflected in the writing below.

He’s not on the team that captures her but he hears about it later. In the midst of Garrett _talking talking talking_ there’s - “We got her, ya know. The girl.” He says it like there’s a _finally_ hidden in there somewhere, like they’ve been trying for years. Maybe they have. Ward has a hard drive full of top secret SHIELD cases. None of the files on Skye had specifically mentioned HYDRA but it wasn’t a far leap to guess that they had been involved with killing the SHIELD team that had tried to protect an infant 084.

 

“What now?” he asks, expression flat, eyes distant. His face feels like a mask, brittle and cracking, and it shouldn’t have been. _This_ is his real face. _This_ is the real him.

 

 _This_ is his real family.

 

He pretends he’s not convincing himself.

 

Garrett grins. “Now we see what she can do.”

 

* * *

 

They do DNA tests, they do blood tests, they test reflexes and eyesight and heart rate. He watches behind a two-way mirror as Skye sarcastically insults her handlers from where she’s strapped to a bed as they draw yet another blood sample. She’s eyes front, shoulders back, but he can see it as he watches her.

 

Skye is afraid.

 

She’s in enemy territory without backup.

 

Another lesson he never got around to.

 

* * *

 

The tests get more invasive with every result of “normal” that they get. Perhaps her abilities don’t manifest unless her life is in danger, they say. He knows that’s not true but he says nothing when they electrocute her, or when they almost drown her, or when they break two of her fingers on her right hand.

 

It’s only when they bring out a surgical knife that he feels the unbearable tension he’s been carrying for days rise up in the back of his throat like he’s swallowed a mountain. For a moment he stands poised on the cusp of action, caught between loyalties, before he abruptly turns on his heel and leaves the room, Skye’s sobs trailing in his wake.

 

Garrett watches him go, silently.

 

* * *

 

Skye screams.

 

He can hear it even rooms away, the sound like a razor through his mind straight down to his heart. He bleeds with it, with her, until he’s empty and dying and all the sins of his past are laid bare before him.

 

_I was supposed to protect her._

 

And it’s only then, in the absolute silence of realized horror does he really hear what Skye is screaming, what she has been screaming, over and over and over.

 

His name.

 

“ _Ward_!”

 

He’s doesn’t really understand what’s he’s done until he’s striding into the back room and putting a bullet into the forehead of the tech poised with a hypodermic needle by Skye’s neck. He looks over and their eyes meet for the first time since that closet back in the Hub.

 

Skye is bandaged and bleeding, eyes bloodshot and dark hair in long tangles. She doesn’t smile but she looks at him, which is more than he deserves.

 

“I think it’s too late for that drink,” she croaks. It’s his signal to help unhook her from the machines and wrap her up in a nearby blanket.

 

“I know,” he replies quietly. It’s far, far too late.

 

Their eyes meet and Skye’s mouth crooks just a little in her pale face.

  
“I’m glad you finally made it.”


End file.
